I had originally thought to write only about wine today, brushing aside the emotions of yesterday's events in the United States as if to lose them in a wine glass.

But I can't do that, and I hope none of you expect me to.

Instead, I would invite you to pause for just one silent moment, and consider the ties of wine and the Internet that bring us together to share our joy in a common interest, at a time when a handful of extremists would drive us apart.

As I look over the 20,000 entries on The 30 Second Wine Advisor mailing list I take special pleasure out of seeing the amazing range of home towns and nations that many of you have listed.

A majority of you are in the United States and Canada, of course, with strong contingents from the other English-speaking nations: More than 1,000 of you in the UK, hundreds more in Australia and New Zealand. More than 200 of you live in India; more than 100 in Ireland and as many in South Africa; well over 100 readers reside in Germany, in the Scandinavian nations, and in Belgium and the Netherlands. Italy and France are well represented, and the former Yugoslavia. Our community of interest spans the globe: We have readers in Japan, in Korea, in China and across Southeast Asia; more than 100 of you are in Malaysia; nearly 200 in Singapore. You've signed on from Israel, from Egypt, from Iran and the United Arab Emirates. With nearly 100 nations represented, I can't list them all, but I mustn't forget to wave at the handful of wine-loving scientists at McMurdo Station in Antarctica who've expanded our community of readers to all seven continents.

The point to all this is simple: In the aftermath of yesterday's terroristic effort to divide, I'm drawing hope from the way that this amazing Internet has the potential to bring us together.

Finally, I can't improve on the emotions that the poet John Donne wrote nearly 400 years ago, in his Meditation XVII from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions:

"No man is an island intire of itselfe,
every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is lesse,
as well as if a promontorie were,
as well as if a mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were;
any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde;
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee."

There is nothing more to say today about what happened in New York and Washington: A tragedy like this tolls for us all.

I'll see you tomorrow, when we'll be back to talking about wine.

Administrivia

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